Mulan Brazenly Challenges Gender and Sexuality

Disney’s Mulan came out right around the time my generation started watching movies in earnest. Long after Disney’s Golden Age (1937-1942), Millennials’ grew up during the animation giant’s important soul searching phase: the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999). We saw non-traditional families, people of color in lead roles and a general break from the norms of Disney princess storytelling. This new art was an essential part of growth for a generation that is more fluid (and more free to be fluid) about labels and identity than those that came before us.